This application claims the priority of German application 196 39 849.5, the disclosure of which is expressly incorporated by reference herein.
The present invention relates to a method for selecting one of several equivalent operating elements for controlling the lengthwise and/or transverse dynamics of a vehicle, especially a motor vehicle, with the operating elements being operable independently of one another.
In previously unpublished DE 195 48 717.6, various configurations of operating elements are described for controlling the lengthwise and/or transverse dynamics of a motor vehicle. A plurality of operating elements movable from the driver's seat can be provided. In addition, operating elements can be moved from the driver's seat and from the passenger seat, as well as operating elements that can be moved only from the passenger seat.
In order to select one of the operating elements and thus control all the lengthwise and/or transverse dynamics of the vehicle by way of this operating element, DE 195 48 717.6 discloses that the actuating elements are either coupled with one another during actuation, or designed so that their signals are superimposed in an additive manner, are ranked hierarchically with respect to one another, or are switchable manually.
When one operating element is deactivated and another operating element is activated to control lengthwise and/or transverse movement of a vehicle, at the point in time when the switching action takes place it is unclear for a short space of time which operating element is currently active. If a switch is made during driving from operation of the vehicle by the driver to operation by the passenger (or vice versa), exact agreement between the two is required. There is necessarily a short space of time during which the driver has the impression that the passenger has already assumed control of the vehicle by means of an operating element assigned to him, while the passenger is still of the opinion that the driver is still controlling the vehicle.
Moreover, during manual switching, an error regarding the manually selected operating element can occur. If such an error does occur, the driver will initially attempt to operate the vehicle by using the operating elements which he thinks he has selected. A dangerous driving situation thereby results because the vehicle cannot be controlled by the operating element. Until the driver locates the operating element which has actually been activated, a period of time elapses during which an accident cannot be ruled out.
WO 88/09279 discloses two operating elements for controlling transverse movement, each of which can be operated by the driver with one hand. The two operating elements are then rigidly coupled together mechanically.
An object of the present invention is to prevent inadvertent control of the lengthwise and/or transverse dynamics of the motor vehicle and to allow a manual change between various operating elements without a transition and without any danger to those involved, even while driving.
This object has been achieved in the operating elements which form the present invention by essentially providing a method in which the selection of an operating element is effected by a selector switch and completed by subsequent actuation of the selected operating element.
An advantage of the present invention is that activation of the selected operating element takes place simultaneously with deactivation of the previous operating element when the selected operating element is actuated, after activation of the selected operating element has been made possible by a selector switch.
The advantageous method according to the invention therefore takes place in two steps, with activation of an operating element being made possible initially by actuation of the selector switch. The actual activation then takes place at a later point in time, namely when the operating element to be activated is in fact actuated to control lengthwise and/or transverse movement of the vehicle.
According to one advantageous embodiment of the invention, assurance is provided by checking seat occupation that only the operating element can only be actuated which is associated with an actually occupied operating location. Thus, for example, activation of an operating element which can be actuated only from the passenger seat is impossible when the passenger seat is not occupied. As a result, improper operation is advantageously ruled out.
According to another advantageous embodiment, the selected operating element must be actuated within a predetermined time interval, which can, for example, be up to 30 seconds, so that the selection can actually be made. This feature has the advantage that inadvertent actuation of the selector switch does not lead to inadvertent activation of an operating element at a much later point in time as a result of a likewise inadvertent actuation of the operating element. As a result of the time correlation, therefore, the intent of the participant to make a switching maneuver is determined. The duration of the set time interval requires adjustment and can be adjusted, for example, during driving tests in a suitably equipped simulator.